44 IT Pro January/February 2012 P u b l i s h e d b y t h e I E E E C o m p u t e r S o c i e t y 1520-9202/12/$31.00 © 2012 IEEE

FEATURE: IT WORKFORCE

Faheem Ahmed, United Arab Emirates University

Luiz Fernando Capretz, University of Western Ontario, Canada

Piers Campbell, United Arab Emirates University

An analysis of 500 advertisements for IT positions focuses on the soft skills mentioned in the ads, revealing which soft skills are in high demand for software development and which ones are neglected despite their importance.

The production of any piece of software involves a human element, requiring activities such as problem solving, ana-lytical thinking, communication, and

cognitive reasoning. Furthermore, software de-velopment comprises different activities—system analysis, design, coding, and testing—which re-quire not only different abilities but also differ-ent personality types. Managers and human re-source professionals are thus increasingly using personality measures to evaluate the suitability of job applicants for various positions.1 According to Luis Martínez and his colleagues, personal-ity is an important factor in team performance—assigning adequate roles to each team member can help lead to project success.2 (For more re-lated research on soft skills, see the sidebar.)

Advertisements for software development jobs generally divide skill requirements into two categories: “hard” and “soft” skills. Hard skills

are the technical requirements and knowledge an individual needs to carry out a task. Soft skills refer to the personality traits and attitudes that drive a person’s behavior.3 Soft skills comple-ment technical skills,4 so the ideal IT staff mem-ber should possess both.5 Software projects can achieve better results by assigning people with particular soft skills to different project phases.

Here, we analyze 500 advertisements for IT positions, focusing on the soft skills mentioned in the ads. Our analysis helps determine which soft skills are in high demand for software devel-opment jobs and which soft skills are neglected despite their importance.

Survey Setup and DataWe surveyed jobs advertised on the following online portals: workopolis.ca (North America), eurojobs.com (Europe), monsterindia.com (Asia), and seek.com.au (Australia). The geographical

Evaluating the Demand for Soft Skills in Software Development

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distribution of the dataset is as follows: 31 per-cent from North America, 26 percent from Europe, 23 percent from Asia, and 20 percent from Australia. The dataset includes the following jobs distribution: system analyst (23 percent), software designer (21 percent), computer programmer (28 percent), and software tester (28 percent).

Only nine soft skills were identified in the advertisements:

• communication skills—the ability to convey in-formation so that it’s well received and under-stood;

• interpersonal skills—the ability to deal with other people through social communication and in-teractions under favorable and inauspicious conditions;

•analytical and problem-solving skills—the ability to understand, articulate, and solve complex problems and make sensible decisions based on available information;

• team player—someone who can work effectively in a team environment and contribute toward the desired goal;

• organizational skills—the ability to efficiently manage various tasks and to remain on sched-ule without wasting resources;

• fast learner—the ability to learn new concepts, methodologies, and technologies in a compar-atively short timeframe;

•ability to work independently—can carry out tasks with minimal supervision;

• innovative—the ability to come up with new and creative solutions; and

• open and adaptable to change—the ability to ac-cept and adapt to changes when carrying out a task without showing resistance.

We included an ad in our dataset if it listed at least one of these nine skills. We didn’t keep a re-cord of job advertisements that didn’t specifically list any soft-skills requirements.

Related Soft Skills Research

Soft skills are usually overlooked in the software in-dustry because the relationship between software

development and soft skills is extremely complex to investigate. It takes a variety of soft and hard skills to solve the myriad of problems related to software development.1

We can broadly define the concept of professional abilities as the combination of knowledge, skills, and character that people possess in relation to their professional activity.2 Robert Feldt and his colleagues corroborate that empirical studies should collect psy-chometrics focusing on correlating personality and at-titudes to software engineering processes and tools.3

According to Damien Joseph and his colleagues, there’s a growing awareness that technical skills alone are insufficient for success in IT.4 Jen-Hur Wu and colleagues observe that understanding the impor-tance of critical professional activities and the related skills and knowledge for each level of IT management might be critical in successful enterprise professional development.5 Also, Deborah Stevenson and Jo Ann Starkweather have investigated the human charac-teristics necessary to achieve success, identifying and rating preferred IT project management competen-cies across US industries.6

Note that soft skills are influenced by culture—for example, Judith Olson and Gary Olson report that the US and Netherlands rank individualism very high,

whereas China, West Africa, and Indonesia are more collective in nature.7

References1. L.F. Capretz and F. Ahmed, “Making Sense of Software

Development and Personality Types,” IT Professional,

vol. 12, no. 1, 2010, pp. 6–13.

2. A. Llorens-Garcia, X. Llinas-Audet, and F. Sabate,

“Professional and Interpersonal Skills for ICT Specialists,”

IT Professional, vol. 11, no. 6, 2009, pp. 23–30.

3. R. Feldt et al., “Towards Individualized Software

Engineering: Empirical Studies Should Collect

Psychometrics,” Proc. Int’l Workshop on Cooperative and

Human Aspects of Software Engineering, ACM Press, 2008,

pp. 49–52.

4. D. Joseph et al., “Practical Intelligence in IT: Assessing

Soft Skills of IT Professionals,” Comm. ACM, vol. 53,

no. 2, 2010, pp. 149–154.

5. J. Wu, Y. Chen, and J. Chang, “Critical IS Professional

Activities and Skills/Knowledge: A Perspective of IS

Managers,” Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 23, no. 6,

2007, pp. 2945–2965.

6. D.H. Stevenson and J.A. Starkweather, “PM Critical

Competency Index: IT Execs Prefer Soft Skills,” Int’l J.

Project Management, vol. 28, 2010, pp. 663–671.

7. J.S. Olson and G.M. Olson, “Culture Surprises in Remote

Software Development Teams,” ACM Queue, vol. 1, no. 9,

2003, pp. 52–59.

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46 IT Pro January/February 2012

FEATURE: IT WORKFORCE

Survey ResultsTable 1 illustrates the survey’s findings, pro-viding an in-depth look at the current status of desirable soft skills in different software develop-ment roles. We used a three-point scale to repre-sent the demand: high (greater than 66 percent), moderate (between 33 and 66 percent), or low (less than 33 percent).

System AnalystSystem analysis requires a great deal of human interaction with users and clients, so strong communication skills are essential. Additionally, sys-tem analysts must be able to empa-thize with their customers to fully understand their needs, so interper-sonal and analytical skills and the ability to be a team player should also be highly desirable. Yet Mark Misic and David Graf reported in a sur-vey of skill requirements for system analysts that interpersonal skills were the least-valued skill (analytical skills were considered the most important, followed by technical and commu-nication skills).6 Our review of 115 system analyst ads showed similar results (see Figure 1).

There was a high demand for communication skills (92 percent), analytical and problem-solving skills (69 percent), and team play-ers (66 percent). There was moder-ate demand for organizational skills (37 percent). The least required soft skills were the following: indepen-dent worker (27 percent), interper-

sonal skills (26 percent), open and adaptable to change (20 percent), innovative and creative (9 percent), and fast learner (6 percent). Some of the vital soft skills are in high demand, but the software industry isn’t paying enough attention to others, such as interpersonal skills and the ability to innovate.

Figure 1. Soft skills requirements for various software development jobs.

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

Perc

enta

ge (%

) of r

equi

rem

ents

30

20

10

0System analyst Designer Programmer Software tester

Communication skillsInterpersonal skillsAnalytical andproblem-solving skills

Organizational skillsFast learnerTeam player

Ability to work independently

Open and adaptable to chagesInnovative and creative

Table 1. Summary of the survey results. High demand (H) is greater than 66 percent, moderate demand (M) is between 33 and 66 percent, and low demand (L) is less than 33 percent.

Soft skills

System analyst

Software designer

Computer programmer

Software tester

H M L H M L H M L H M L

Communication skills √ √ √ √

Interpersonal skills √ √ √ √

Analytical and problem-solving skills √ √ √ √

Team player √ √ √ √

Organizational skills √ √ √ √

Fast learner √ √ √ √

Ability to work independently √ √ √ √

Innovative √ √ √ √

Open and adaptable to changes √ √ √ √

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System analysts often interact with users, so the industry should better emphasize the need for such skills.

Software DesignerA good design usually yields better results, while a bad design can lead to disaster. Iterations aren’t unusual in the designing process. Software de-signers should be able to see the big picture. They must perform a wide range of tasks, including prototyping processing functions, and defining inputs and outputs. These tasks require commu-nication, interpersonal, and organizational skills.

According to Inger Boivie and colleagues, de-signers should have strong communication, in-terpersonal, analytical, and problem-solving skills, and they should be team players who are open to change.7 Our analysis of 105 soft-ware designer ads showed a high demand for communication (92 percent) and interpersonal (92 percent) skills. There was moderate demand for analytical and problem solving skills (40 per-cent) and for team players (49 percent). The least required skills were organizational (16 percent), independent worker (9 percent), innovative and creative (5 percent), fast learner (2 percent), and open and adaptable to changes (2 percent).

The industry should pay more attention to in-novative and organizational skills, which are vital for software designers.

Computer ProgrammerTranslating the design into computer-executable code is the computer programmer’s primary job. Programmers should attend to details, follow an open and logical process, and apply analytical thinking. Software programmers must translate a design into executable code, which requires understanding the design and making judgment calls. Programming tasks, such as determin-ing the details of module logic, establishing file layouts, and coding programs, require little in-terpersonal contact; programmers have solitary work. However, they should be organized, fast learners, and able to adapt to changes. Accord-ing to Gregory Sterling and Thomas Brinthaupt, a programmer should have communication, ana-lytical and problem-solving, organizational, and interpersonal skills and should be creative.8

Our analysis of 140 computer programmer ads showed that the only soft skill in high demand

was communication skills (90 percent). There was moderate demand for interpersonal skills (65 percent), team players (62 percent), analytical and problem-solving skills (52 percent), organiza-tional skills (37 percent), and independent work-ers (34 percent). The ads weren’t looking as much for computer programmers who are innovative and creative (12 percent), fast learners (3 percent), or open and adaptable to changes (2 percent).

Software TesterSoftware testing involves identifying defects in a program and thus requires analytical and problem- solving skills. Software testers are viewed as the software development team’s worst enemy, be-cause they leave no stones unturned and bring news of defects. This requires good communica-tion and interpersonal skills to keep the team active and avoid conflicts.9 According to Ilene Burn-stein, communication, analytical, and problem-solving skills are important for software testers. Burnstein also says testers should be team play-ers who are open to change and creative.10

Again, our analysis of 140 software tester ads showed that communication was the only soft skill in high demand (79 percent). There was mod-erate demand for analytical and problem-solving (43 percent) and organizational (37 percent) skills. The least required soft skills for software testers were team players (27 percent), interper-sonal skills (22 percent), independent workers (17 percent), innovative and creative workers (6 percent), those open to change (5 percent), and fast learners (4 percent). The analysis revealed that the software industry isn’t paying much attention to important soft skills for software testers.

Regional ComparisonFigure 2 shows a regional comparison of soft-skill requirements for the various IT jobs. Com-munication is the only soft skill in high demand across all four regions and job titles. Innova-tive and creative fast learners who can adapt to change are in low demand across all four regions and in all but one position. System analyst ads in North America exhibit a moderate demand for those who can adapt to change. Also in North America, the ads for computer programmers and system analysts showed a moderate demand for independent workers; other regions and job titles exhibited a low demand for this characteristic.

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48 IT Pro January/February 2012

FEATURE: IT WORKFORCE

In the Australian market, organizational skills are in low demand for computer programmers, but the remaining three regions exhibit moder-ate needs in this area. Australia also showed a lesser need for team players for the system ana-lyst position, exhibiting only a moderate demand, whereas the other regions showed a high demand for team players for this position. However, team players are in low demand for the software tester position in the Australian, Asian, and European job markets.

Analytical and problem-solving skills are in high demand for system analysts in both North America and Australia. The remaining regions exhibit only moderate demand for this skill. All four regions had a high demand for interpersonal skills. Conversely, the skill is in low demand for software testers in each of the four regions.

O ur survey indicates that soft skills are in demand in the software industry, but only to a limited extent. This highlights

the lack of understanding of the role that soft skills play in an employee’s professional ability and performance. For example, analytical and

problem-solving skills are in high demand for sys-tems analysts but are in only moderate demand for other roles, despite the fact that software de-velopment is fundamentally a problem-solving profession. Also, innovative, fast learners who can adapt to change are in low demand, which is disconcerting because the software field changes rapidly, as do customer requirements and expec-tations. Furthermore, only the software designer ads showed a high demand for interpersonal skills, even though system analysts and software testers also require this skill.

Organizations would be well served by diversi-fying the soft skills of their software developers. This would provide richer talent and viewpoints to help them tackle the inherent complexity of software construction.

References 1. M.G. Rothstein and R.D. Goffin, “The Use of Per-

sonality Measures in Personnel Selection: What Does Current Research Support?” Human Resource Management Rev., vol. 16, no. 2, 2006, pp. 155–180.

2. L. G. Martínez et al., “Big Five Patterns for Software Engineering Roles Using an ANFIS Learning Ap-proach with RAMSET,” Advances in Soft Computing,

Figure 2. A regional comparison of soft-skill requirements. Communication is the only soft skill in high demand across all regions and job titles.

Aus AsiaEU

NA Aus AsiaEU NA Aus Asia EU NA Aus Asia EU NA

Ana

lyst

Des

igne

r

Prog

ram

mer

Test

er

H

M

L

NA

Ana

lyst

Des

igne

r

amm

er

erCommunication skillsInterpersonal skillsAnalytical and problem-solving skillsTeam playerOrganizational skillsAbility to work independently

Innovative and creativeFast learner

H = High in demandM = Moderate in demandL = Low in demand

NA = North AmericaEU = EuropeAus = Australia

Open and adaptable to changes

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Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 6438, 2010, pp. 428–439; DOI:10.1007/978-3-642-16773-7_37.

3. A. Roan and G. Whitehouse, “Women, Information Technology and Waves of Optimism: Australian Evi-dence on Mixed-Skill Jobs,” New Technology, Work and Employment, vol. 22, no. 1, 2007, pp. 21–33.

4. T.L. Lewis et al., “Are Technical and Soft Skills Required?” Proc. 4th Workshop on Computing Education Research, ACM Press, 2008, pp. 91–100.

5. W. Chou, “Smart Staff Recruiting,” IT Professional, vol. 11, no. 2, 2009, pp. 57–59.

6. M.M. Misic and D.K. Graf, “Systems Analyst Activi-ties and Skills in the New Millennium,” J. Systems and Software, vol. 71, nos. 1–2, 2004, pp. 31–36.

7. I. Boivie, J. Gulliksen, and B. Göransson, “The Lone-some Cowboy: A Study of the Usability Designer Role in Systems Development,” Interacting with Computers, vol. 18, no. 4, 2006, pp. 601–634.

8. G.D. Sterling and T.M. Brinthaupt, “Faculty and Industry Conceptions of Successful Computer Pro-grammers,” J. Information Systems Education, vol. 14, no. 4, 2004, pp. 417–424.

9. J.A. Whittaker, “What is Software Testing? And Why Is It So Hard?” IEEE Software, vol. 17, no. 1, 2000, pp. 70–79.

10. I. Burnstein, Practical Software Testing, Springer, 2003.

Faheem Ahmed is an assistant professor in the Faculty of In formation Technology at the United Arab Emirates Univer-sity. His research interests are software product lines, software process modeling, software process assessment, and empirical software engineering. Ahmed has a PhD in electrical engi-neering from the University of Western Ontario, Canada. He’s a member of IEEE. Contact him at f.ahmed@uaeu.ac.ae.

Luiz Fernando Capretz is an associate professor and the assistant dean of IT and e-Education at the Univer-sity of Western Ontario, Canada. His research interests include software engineering, human aspects of software engineering, software estimation, software product lines, and software engineering education. Capretz has a PhD in computing science from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. He’s a senior member of IEEE, a distinguished mem-ber of the ACM, an MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indica-tor) certified practitioner, and a Professional Engineer in Ontario, Canada. Contact him at lcapretz@uwo.ca.

Piers Campbell is an assistant professor in the Faculty of Information Technology at the United Arab Emirates Uni-versity. His research interests include knowledge discovery and software ecosystems. Piers received his PhD from the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Ulster in the United Kingdom. He’s a member of IEEE. Contact him at p.campbell@uaeu.ac.ae.

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